I dunno I personally wouldn't pay whiteside the max but i know that's obviously what hes about to get. He just reminds me too much of beasley lot of talent but dumb as bricks bball iq. I dont view him as much of a player outside his wingspan.

Because Whiteside has signed, I guess I get to roll out with the "y'all were crazy" speech. But seriously to me the decision was in Whiteside's handsbecause as Sec has always said, the Heat shouldn't have been in a mindset that they were gonna lose a young player they developed who is putting up Hall of Fame numbers because of money. If ultimately he just didn't want to be in Miami, he liked the nucleus in Portland better or was still a little miffed at the "tough love" approach Ethan talked about earlier on twitter, then that's something you can't control and so be it. But you don't lose him over money.

Yeah, I get trying to peg his salary at the absolute lowest it could go. I get that. Play with the numbers, TRY and appeal to he and his agent rationally about "real" money (after taxes), how if the "real" money in our offer is equal to the "real" money in the other offer then he should choose us by default, etc. But we had indications days ago that those arguments weren't going to fly, that his agent cared about nominal contract money and for the very logical reason that if he got traded to another team mid-contract and that team played in a state with taxes, he's ****ed. So at that point you say well ****, there goes that possibility, we're not gonna be able to pull a fast one on you. Here's your max contract.

And you look around at the money being thrown at all these other players, how is this not a no-brainer? Half a dozen times a year this guy is setting marks where his only company are literally among the best that have ever played the position. It wasn't easy but you got him to buy into your culture, you got him to trust you (being kicked around 8 different teams has led to trust issues, go figure), and you saw the proof of all that in the way he made observable improvements in certain areas. What is more incredible is it doesn't seem like there's any area where he isn't capable of improving. When you start to think his passing will always be ****ty, it improves a little. When you start to think his free throw shooting will always be ****ty, it improves dramatically. When you start to think he's never going to screen well, his screens improve.

When the dude went down injured against Toronto, that's pretty much when the series ended for the Heat. Yeah they lost Valanciunas but losing Whiteside was bigger for us than losing Valanciunas was for them.

As for the rest of free agency...I love Goran Dragic. I would absolutely HATE to trade him. He's such a good guy and a good Heat guy. But basketball isn't a sport where you can just collect good players. You can only put five out there. When you have the option of getting a GREAT player, even if it means losing a GOOD player, you have to do it because it moves the needle a lot. So if Durant is willing...